different between hellfire vs hellfare

English

Etymology

From Middle English helle fire, helever, from Old English hellef?r, equivalent to hell +? fire. Cognate with West Frisian helfjoer (“hellfire”), Dutch hellevuur (“hellfire”), German Höllenfeuer (“hellfire”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?h?l?fa??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?h?l?fa???/

Noun

hellfire (countable and uncountable, plural hellfires)

1. (uncountable) The fire of Hell.
2. (uncountable) Fire produced by the Devil, or a similar supernatural creature connected to Hell.
3. (countable) A fire that burns with unusual heat or ferocity.

Alternative forms

• sometimes capitalized, hyphenated, or both: Hellfire, hell-fire, Hell-fire; also as fires of hell

Translations

Adjective

hellfire (comparative more hellfire, superlative most hellfire)

1. Of or relating to a violent, apocalyptic and ultimate day of reckoning and judgment; usually characterizing a form of Christian preaching.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures 4 & 5:

     The advance of liberalism, so-called, in Christianity, during the past fifty years, may fairly be called a victory of healthy-mindedness within the church over the morbidness with which the old hell-fire theology was more harmoniously related.

   • 2005, Sang Hyun Lee, The Princeton Companion to Jonathan Edwards (University of Princeton Press), p. 253:

     Sermons such as The Eternity of Hell Torments and The Future Punishment of the Wicked Unavoidable and Intolerable, as well as several manuscript examples, serve to mark the distinction between a true hellfire sermon and the proto-eschatological concerns of Sinners [in the Hands of an Angry God], consumed as it is with the here and now.

See also

• fire and brimstone
• purgatory

Interjection

hellfire

1. hell; damn; blast

English

Etymology

Blend of hell +? welfare, equivalent to hell +? fare.

Noun

hellfare (uncountable)

1. Deplorable welfare; welfare that causes more anguish than good.
   • 2009, Robert Cowen, Andreas Michael Kazamias, Elaine Unterhalter, International handbook of comparative education:

     Not surprisingly, the quest for resources other than from the public purse received no small urging by governments and Ministry, though obviously the degree of pressure brought to bear and the means by which it was brought to bear, are legion depending on the state of national wealth and hellfare!

See also

• hellthcare